After countless drafts and negotiations, California lawmakers announced on Thursday that they had finally reached an agreement on the regulatory structure for the state’s nearly two-decade old medical marijuana industry.

Some of the more trustworthy reports indicate that this concession between both chambers and Governor Jerry Brown was achieved through the passing of a few pieces of legislation: Senate Bill 643, Assembly Bill 266 and Assembly Bill 246.

Essentially, the rules would force medical marijuana businesses to obtain licenses on the state and local level, while also lending to the creation of the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation, a department that would team up with other state agencies to govern and watchdog every aspect of the program from cultivation to retail sale.

California lawmakers said late Thursday that they have reached a deal on legislation to regulate and license medical marijuana.

The regulatory framework to corral the billion-dollar medical cannabis industry will be contained in three bills that have received the blessings of the two chambers and Gov. Jerry Brown, said Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, one of the authors of the measures.

Bonta said his measure, which along with the others will be released Friday, would require state and local licenses for medical marijuana businesses. It would create a new Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation to oversee the licensing and regulatory effort and involve the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the Department of Public Health.

The new bureau would be housed in the Department of Consumer Affairs and led by a director confirmed by the state Senate.

Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, another author, said local cities and counties will be able to place taxes for cultivation and retail on the ballot in addition to the sales taxes on marijuana, and could designate fees to recoup regulation costs.

The 2016 Election is in full swing, even though it’s still 2015. The stakes are high, and whoever is elected President of the United States in 2016 is going to largely affect the direction that cannabis policy in America goes from then onward. 2016 will be a crucial time for cannabis reform. There have been a lot of cannabis victories this decade, and a marijuana friendly President would only help to increase the marijuana movement’s momentum. A President like Chris Christie would set the movement back quite a bit.

There are a lot of candidates this election cycle for President. On the GOP side, Donald Trump seems to be getting the most attention, although there are still a ton of people in the race. For the most part on the Democrat side things have widdled down to three names – Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden. Although, Joe Biden doesn’t seem to be getting much traction, and still seems to be in an ‘exploratory phase’ of his candidacy.

Traditionally, cannabis consumers tend to favor Democrats. No, that does not mean all of the time, so if you are a non-Democrat and consume cannabis, calm down, I’m just pointing out the math. For me, I have never liked Hillary Clinton from a purely cannabis policy standpoint. I have always felt that she is ultimately against cannabis, but realizes that appearing to be neutral on the issue is good for her political career, so she uses classic tactics to make it appear like she’s semi-sympathetic to cannabis. I wrote an article about it last year that you can read if you like.

I don’t know of one cannabis consumer that is voting for Hillary. That’s not to say that they aren’t out there (again, don’t freak out), but I know A LOT of cannabis consumers all over the country, and not one of them is expressing support for Hillary. Maybe they are closet Hillary fans and plan on voting for her on the down low, but they definitely don’t talk about her publicly. Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, seems to be really popular among my cannabis consuming friends and colleagues, and that level of popularity is growing everyday.